Germany has evidence Putin critic Navalny was poisoned with Novichok

[BERLIN] A critic of Russian President Vladmir Putin now in a coma and being treated in a Berlin hospital was poisoned with a nerve agent of the Novichok family, a German government spokesman said on Wednesday.

Toxology tests of blood samples from Alexei Navalny conducted at a German military laboratory produced "unequivocal evidence" that the Russian opposition critic had been poisoned with Novichok, Steffen Seibert said in an emailed statement.

"The federal government will inform its partners in the EU and Nato of the results of the investigation," Mr Seibert added."It will discuss an appropriate joint response with the partners in the light of the Russian response." A Kremlin spokesman said Germany had not informed it that Berlin believed Mr Navalny had been poisoned with Novichok, according to the RIA news agency REUTERS